


Until Whatever End Finds Us

by YummyYugi



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Friendship, Hope, Male-Female Friendship, Near Death, Trust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:08:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25761118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YummyYugi/pseuds/YummyYugi
Summary: Sokka, strains for a moment, then pants with resignation, "I don't think boomerang is coming back, Toph." He probably thinks he's hidden the sorrow in his voice, but she knows him too well to be fooled. "It looks like this is the end."
Kudos: 26





	Until Whatever End Finds Us

**Author's Note:**

> This is simply what I imagined to go through Toph's mind when it looked like she was about to die.

Sokka snags Toph’s hand in his, the largeness compared to hers giving her a seemingly misplaced sense of comfort considering a Fire Nation soldier is shooting a torrent of flames at her back. 

She holds onto him like a lifeline, and he kind of is. She can only vaguely “see” on this flying hunk of metal, and in the hurry to escape, she trusts his eyes better than her feet at the moment. They sprint away from the heat of the fire together, and her back grows cooler as the flames are successfully escaped, but is it just her blurry sight, or are they headed straight for the edge of the-

Sokka jumps off the side of the airship, and even though she’s beginning to feel a fear much greater than any kind she’s ever felt with her new group of danger-magnet friends, Toph jumps alongside him without hesitation. 

They’re sliding down the side of the ship, but her stomach doesn’t jump to her throat, so she knows they aren’t traveling as fast as they ought to be. It must have something to do with that horrible shrieking of metal on metal. Sokka must be attempting to stop or slow their fall with one of his tools, the action sending sparks across her face. Her eyelids flutter at the needle like sensation, but they widen when the sound and sparks disappear, and they’re airborne - no metal blimp to slide down, and nothing but an earth on fire ready to greet them with death. 

She can’t help herself, she cries out, fear tearing from her throat audibly. As suddenly as her stomach fills her neck, it's jerked back into place as she is jolted to a stop. Both Toph and Sokka shout at the sudden resistance of gravity, but Sokka’s voice sounds a little more pained. 

“My leg!”

Toph’s eyes widen, her face probably looking the picture of stricken. Sokka managed to stop their fall with something, but now he’s injured, and she doesn’t know how she can protect him. She’s midair, hanging hundreds of feet from the ground and now fully blind. She doesn’t even know how she can protect herself. 

Subconsciously looking for comfort, Toph tightens her grip on the only thing she has - Sokka’s large, warm hand. Absently, she wonders if he can still feel his fingers with how tightly he returns the gesture, his death grip the only thing keeping her from plunging into what lies below.

“Hang on, Toph,” he calls over the wind.

She keeps her face turned upward in his general direction as she answers unsurely, "Aye-aye, Captain."

Her body hangs helplessly, but tenses in preparation when her ears catch a new sound. There's the rhythmic thudding of metal on metal as the firebenders' footsteps grow closer, and soon one is on either side of them. 

She recognizes the hissing of young flames being brought to life, but before she can lose hope, Sokka jerks quickly. There's a clang to the right, and while that soldier grunts in pain, Sokka gives another jerk with a throaty shout, and the firebender on the left does the same as his comrade. The fire they began to create dies out in an instant. 

Whatever Sokka threw to incapacitate the soldiers is falling behind her with a choppy, whirling sound, and it makes her shudder when it disappears in the same sky she hangs in, but she never hears it hit the ground.

"Bye, space sword," Sokka wails after it sadly, but he isn't allowed anymore time to mourn.

There are more clanking footsteps as Firenation soldiers line up opposite them, and take aim.

Toph is now terrified. Her palms are growing slick with sweat, and though Sokka's grasp on her hand never once loosened, she is slipping. Their palms move past one another as her own weight pulls her towards the earth, and now the only thing she knows is merely Sokka's calloused fingertips holding hers with inhuman strength. His tenacity is admirable, but it's ultimately hopeless. 

Sokka, strains for a moment, then pants with resignation, "I don't think boomerang is coming back, Toph." He probably thinks he's hidden the sorrow in his voice, but she knows him too well to be fooled. "It looks like this is the end."

She already knew this. She already  _ knew _ this, but hearing him say the words coated in watertribe warrior pride forced tears from her unseeing eyes. 

Funny that the thought of her own death isn’t what makes her cry.

Her hair whips about her face, stinging her skin and sticking to her now wet cheeks. Her loose clothing snaps in the wind, crackling around her, and she knows that when she falls, that will be the last sound she hears before life in this world ends for her. But through the gust in her ears and pull of the earth, she can feel that determined fingers still hold hers. Her lip quivers, and her eyes pour, because even though they're about to die, Sokka won't let Toph fall until his very last breath. She cries, because if she dies, that means Sokka already has. 

It's bittersweet. Sokka, full of hope and willpower, is the one person who can bring her solace when death calls her name, but she's beginning to think she’d rather be terrified and alone if it meant he could live.

She wants to say something to him, but she isn't sure what. Maybe she wants to admit she thought his jokes were funny the whole time, maybe she wants to say how, even now, she can't regret coming along with the three of them all those months ago. Maybe she wants to say thank you, maybe she wants to tell him that he's her best friend...but nothing can pass her lips in her despair. So she simply squeezes his hand tighter - hoping the action says everything she can't. Perhaps he's feeling something similar, because his digits tighten in response, digging painfully into her skin.

She prays that their fingers will still be glued together when they awake in the afterlife. 

The firebenders react to their victory in a strange way. They gasp, and scramble away from Sokka and Toph quickly. She only has time to blink in confusion before she is moved by an almighty jerk.

There's a roaring of metal crunching against metal, and large chunks of heavy things landing on another large surface, sounding like boulders crashing down the side of a mountain. Toph opens her mouth to question the source when the hand she holds so desperately...abruptly and  _ deliberately _ let's her go.

The shock of it chokes her, and the profanities get stuck in her throat.

_ Asshole! _ She thinks viscerally, but she only falls for a short, heartstopping second before landing on the familiar surface of an airship. 

Sokka lands a few feet away moments later, gasping as he unintentionally puts weight on his injured leg. He's still groaning as Toph finds her balance against the gale, turning in his direction.

She ignores how badly he scared her. "How did that happen? Did boomerang come back?" She knows full well the little weapon couldn't have crashed one ship into another, but she is appropriately bewildered, and currently fighting the sickening wave of relief as she registers their lives are spared. She'll be embarrassed at her wild imaginings later. 

"No," Sokka awes, and his tone of voice let her know that he would be choked up if he wasn't so amazed. "Suki did!"

Toph allows herself to fully exhale the fright of the last few minutes, falling back to her knees and resting her weight on her palms.

They're okay. For a moment, she didn't think they would be, but they're okay. She listens to Sokka and Suki express their relief, and it eases the rest of the fear away. She sighs again, and turns her ear towards the colossal fight she can still hear in the distance. 

Toph spares a moment to hope that Aang is as confident in himself as she is in him. 

_ You can do it, Twinkle-Toes,  _ her spirit encourages. She smiles small when a large, warm hand grasps hers once more.  _ Remember you aren't the only one fighting. We're with you until the end. _

She follows her friends, weak kneed, but alive and kicking - ready to hurt somebody for making her cry.


End file.
